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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23608723">Catching Little Words</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvaRosier/pseuds/AvaRosier'>AvaRosier</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Riverdale (TV 2017)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 15:33:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,500</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23608723</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvaRosier/pseuds/AvaRosier</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of drabbles from the Bughead and Friends Drabble Challenge (March), as well as any other drabble-y bits I come up with.</p><p>Title comes from the random Hozier lyric title generator because lol.</p><p>Yes, i put each lil drabble in its own chapter because why shouldn't i be super obnoxious?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones, Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones/Sweet Pea</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>51</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Attracted to Your Lips</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>It was the lips, Betty decided, that made Jughead Jones pretty. She’d fantasized about kissing them plenty of times over the past few months, which only made her present situation all the more frustrating. Because Jughead’s lips? Were now *her* lips.<b><br/></b></p><p>Never run afoul of witches in Greendale, they might cast a body-switching curse on you and your crush.</p><p>“I’ve got to hand it to you, Betts,” her own voice came from the doorway to the trailer’s bathroom, “I don’t think I’ve ever looked so neat. You do realize my shirts aren’t supposed to be <em>tucked</em> into my jeans?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Hate Kiss</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>“I can’t believe you,” Betty scoffed, leaning down and slamming her hands on the armrests of his chair. “Tell me who your fucking source is, Jones!”</p><p>“Make me, Northsider Barbie,” Jughead retorted, continuing to slouch with his legs spread wide open and twirl his pen around his long fingers.</p><p>At first, she could only gape at him and so he smirked victoriously, clearly believing her all bark and no bite. So she did: she slanted her mouth over his, hard, and when he let out a shocked exhale, she bit down on his lower lip.</p><p>As soon as Jughead began to return the kiss, Betty yanked the beanie off his head and straightened up. Pulling it over her head, she grinned down at him.</p><p>“All your kingdom are belong to me, Serpent Prince.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. An Unhappy Marriage</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  
</p><p>The tension in the house had become unbearable. Jughead was lying across his bed when a soft knock came at his door.</p><p>“Come in.” He sat up.</p><p>Betty bit her lip as she padded across the floor and sat gingerly on the bed next to him.</p><p>“So…divorce?”</p><p>“Divorce.” She nodded.</p><p>He let out a heavy exhale. “Is it terrible of me to say that I’m glad?”</p><p>His soon-to-be-ex stepsister shook her head, fingers interlocking with his. “No, Juggie. Once my mom and your dad divorce, it’ll be easier for us to be together.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Philosophy 101</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Every week the class met, Jughead swore the blonde’s skirts two desks over got shorter. With the advent of warmer weather and the terrifying spread of the novel coronavirus, every inch of her gorgeous legs revealed only made Jughead feel all the more alive.</p><p>So imagine his surprise and delight when, two weeks later after all Yale students had been sent home and classes switched online, he got Facetimed by Betty.</p><p>“I thought we could work together to destroy Bret on the topic discussion about inequality,” she said with a smile before angling her phone far enough away that he could see the long expanse of toned legs exposed by the short shorts she wore. “And don’t think I haven’t noticed you looking.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Broken Down Car</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“My, my—” came the smug voice of the woman currently handcuffed in his backseat.</p><p>“<em>Don’t.</em>” Jughead growled as he twisted the key in the ignition for the fourth time. Nothing.</p><p>“—how the turntables have turned, Officer Jones.”</p><p>He carded his fingers through his hair in frustration before he glared at Betty through the rearview mirror. And immediately regretted it. She looked far too good for his sanity in the pink wig and PVC bustier, lips even glossier as she mocked his current predicament.</p><p>“You ruined my honey trap, Jug, there’s no way you’re getting that first date now.”</p><p>“Wanna bet?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Bookstore Blues</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“It’s just not the same,” Betty murmured, snuggling in closer against his body. “Bookstores are my happy place, Juggie. I can’t subsist on kindle editions and online orders alone.”<b><br/></b></p><p>Jughead sighed, rubbing his girlfriend’s back as he racked his brain for something that would cheer her up during all the covid19-related closures. </p><p>“Okay, how about this: tomorrow we’ll put all our books out in the living room as if it were a bookstore and we’ll select one from the many TBR books we both have, then sit around reading with a cup of Keurig coffee?”</p><p>Betty gasped and pushed herself up so she could aim her hopeful grin at him. “Using the milk steamer?”</p><p>“Why not? We might as well live dangerously with our dwindling supply of milk.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Echo</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jughead hates the Amazon Echo that Veronica gifted Archie with a passion. He’s gone to great lengths to disrupt Alexa and the surveillance state she’s imposed on their tiny two-bedroom.</p><p>Or so he thought.</p><p>They’re joking around while Betty helps him bake brownies for work and she mentions not thinking Jughead liked her very much.  That’s when Alexa plays a recording of *his* voice: “<em>Fuck yes, Betts, I love you</em>.” The sound of his heavy breathing and skin-on-skin contact is unmistakable. </p><p>For a moment he considers saying “Alexa, open up a hole beneath me,” but it turns out to be unnecessary.</p><p>Betty ends up riding him right there in the easy chair, and Jughead decides Alexa is the Best. Wingwoman. Ever.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Assholes Anonymous</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>&gt;&gt;You know what you are? You’re a card-carrying member of Assholes Anonymous!<b><br/></b></p><p> </p><p>&lt;&lt;…………</p><p>&lt;&lt;……………..</p><p>&lt;&lt;I really hope you have the wrong number</p><p> </p><p>&gt;&gt;You’re not Chuck Clayton?</p><p>&gt;&gt;Oh my god I really did type in the wrong number</p><p>&gt;&gt;Sorry!</p><p> </p><p>&lt;&lt;No, I’m Jughead Jones</p><p> </p><p>&gt;&gt;Chuck’s a twatwaffle who stuck me with most of the work on our class project</p><p>&gt;&gt;Jughead? That’s an interesting name</p><p> </p><p>&lt;&lt;Sounds like the guy is definitely a card-carrying member of Assholes Anonymous</p><p>&lt;&lt;Trust me, my real name is probably worse than yours….</p><p> </p><p>&gt;&gt;Wow. Smooth.</p><p> </p><p>&lt;&lt;Thanks.</p><p> </p><p>&gt;&gt;And it’s Betty</p><p>&gt;&gt;You know, since you already have my number you should probably ask me out sometime</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. A Spell</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After Betty uttered the final word of the incantation, nothing happened. Frowning, she studied her circle—she’d used the correct crystals and herbs.</p><p>Sighing, she had nearly accepted that not even the Fates wanted to give her a mate when the wind began to pick up, whipping the trees into a frenzy.</p><p>A shadow moved over the clearing and Betty gasped as she realized it was a wyvern.</p><p>It was transforming before her eyes and by the time it crashed into the grass, it was a very human, very naked male. He frantically cupped his hands over his groin.</p><p>“Betty!” </p><p>“Jughead?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Male Jewelry (Sweet Pea x Betty x Jughead, Mature)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Well…Betty, was it? Sweet Pea here is extraordinarily skilled at wielding those brass knuckles,” the gang leader, Jughead, murmured, his words a warm tickle against the sensitive whorls of her ear. “And something tells me you’d like to see another demonstration.”</p><p>Betty strained against the ropes that bound her wrists and ankles to the chair—so palpable was her anticipation—and scarcely dared to breathe. The dark eyes of the one he called Sweet Pea observed her every reaction while below, one callused hand pressed her knees wider apart. The other hand, closed in a fist, slipped beneath her skirt.</p><p>When she felt the hard press of the brass knuckles against her thinly covered pussy, Betty’s eyes drifted shut and, intensely aware of the two sets of eyes watching her, she bucked her hips. Pleasure, sharp and sweet, bloomed around her clit. <em>So wrong, so good</em>. She moaned. </p><p>“Yes, please.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Gossip</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It happens because Betty had the temerity to stand up to Lady Cheryl. Within days, the gossip spread like wildfire: a rumor that Lady Elizabeth had been caught in an improper embrace with Lord Forsythe Pendleton Jones III in the Thornhill library during last Saturday’s ball. (No such thing had happened except maybe in her dreams.)</p><p>Naturally they are forced to wed to save her reputation.</p><p>After a shockingly pleasurable wedding night, they honeymoon in the country, and when her new husband gifts her with a suspiciously dead body and a mystery to solve, Betty realizes she’s <em>won</em>.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Shovel</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The downside of the citywide order to Shelter-in-Place was that it gave Jughead’s brain enough time and space to go into overdrive. As he stared into one of the apartments in the building across from his through the long lenses of his camera, he was certain the brunette woman living there had murdered her husband, but he wasn’t sure where she’d hidden the murder weapon.</p><p>Movement! Jughead shifted his camera down and focused on the familiar blonde ponytail that belonged to his neighbor in 2E. Betty was darting across the community lawn, carrying a shovel.</p><p>“Well, well…” he murmured with a grin.</p><p>Great minds think alike.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. The Wrong Person</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Betty has had a crush on Archie Andrews for nearly a year now, and even allowed Veronica to engineer them being paired up for Blind Date In Heaven, so she doesn’t know what to think about her absolute certainty that the tongue so thoroughly and expertly plundering her mouth right now *does not* belong to Archie.</p><p>“Times up!” Light floods the closet, but the hands currently under her skirt are slow to remove themselves.</p><p>Betty yanks off the blindfold and blinks up at none other than the Serpent Prince himself, Jughead Jones—sans blindfold and grin wary. </p><p>“Back to mine?”</p><p></p><div class="postfoot">
  <p> </p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Pet Adoption</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“He’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted,” Betty breathed as she paused scrolling to stare at the picture of a dog up for adoption.<b><br/></b></p><p>His name was Otis and he was a Miniature Schnauzer.</p><p>Jughead couldn’t seem to stop staring at those big, soulful eyes and the earnest expression. “Betty…I think I’m feeling the sudden urge to make dozens of InstaStories all about him,” he marveled.</p><p>“Aww Juggie,” she leaned over and kissed his cheek, “you’ll be the best Dog Dad.”</p><p>“Just think: Otis Cooper-Jones. It’s got a nice ring to it.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Passive-Aggressive</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Whyte Wyrm tended to be used by the younger Serpents as an off-hours hangout, hence why Jughead was tapping away on his laptop keys while the others ate some breakfast. </p><p>Sweet Pea strolled over to the window, bowl of cereal in hand, and looked out at the parking lot in back for a long minute. “Did you talk to Betty last night?”</p><p>Jughead sighed as Toni’s and Fangs’s heads swiveled around to look at him expectantly. “Yeah, I ordered her to stay out of Serpent business. Explained that just because we’re soulmates doesn’t mean she has to get caught up in gang life.”</p><p>Sweet Pea nodded pensively, chewing on another spoonful of Lucky Charms before answering. “So it went well, then?”</p><p>Jughead thought back to their argument last night, remembering the way Betty had just stared at him after he uttered the words ‘<em>that’s an order</em>’, nostrils flaring and lips pressing together hard to hold back whatever words were trying to escape. Then she’d stormed back into her room. “Well enough. She didn’t answer me, but I think I got the point across.”</p><p>CHOMP CHOMP. “I think her answer to you is sitting outside, Jones.” Sweet Pea pointed out the window with his spoon.</p><p>Blanching, Jughead sprinted out the door and came skidding to a stop, mouth gaping open.</p><p>There, on the loose gravel, was his bike. Except it had been thoroughly, completely disassembled into a hundred pieces.</p><p>Toni and Fangs sputtered and then burst into hysterical laughter. Sweet Pea, on the other hand, sounded impressed when he spoke. “Now, I’m not an expert, but I think that’s Cooper’s way of saying ‘Fuck You’.” </p><p>CHOMP CHOMP.</p><p>
  
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Southside Downpour</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>(Happy Birthday, Sarah @theheavycrown)</p><p> </p><p>
  
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <em>The ink is running toward the page<br/>It’s chasin’ off the days<br/>Look back at both feet<br/>And that winding knee<br/>I missed your skin when you were east<br/>You clicked your heels and wished for me</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Betty’s white sundress is clinging rather uncomfortably to her torso from a combination of light mist and exertion.  It’s a humid Saturday morning in August, warm with a forecast of scattered showers, and she’s stuck on a road just off the train tracks that run between Riverdale and Greendale. She knows she should have taken a closer look under the hood of her Dad’s ancient Ford pickup  before she set out for the Greendale farmer’s market, but there hadn’t been time. </p><p>Of course, that’s when the skies open, rain pouring down onto her in sheets and soaking her to the bone. </p><p>Of course, the first house she comes across within the Riverdale town limits belongs to none other than Jughead Jones. </p><p>Betty wouldn’t call her and Jughead friends, exactly. She grew up on the Northside and he the Southside, <em>never the twain shall meet,</em> until the two of them were hired out of college by the new owners of the Riverdale Register. Whatever assumptions and stereotypes that had kept them apart seems to have faded, morphed into the realization that they make excellent partners.</p><p>To say nothing of the long looks and near misses, moments that could have brought them together until no space existed between their bodies. But didn’t.</p><p><em>Maybe now</em>, Betty thinks with a sharp thrill, when she sees the way Jughead’s eyes darken as he takes in the sight of her: dress plastered to her and so wet it might as well be invisible. </p><p>“Come in,” he says, standing aside so she could hurry out of the downpour. “I’ll get you something dry to change into.”</p><p>
  <em>Yes, let’s get me out of my clothes.  </em>
</p><p>“While you’re changing, I’ll get some coffee going,” Jughead mutters mostly to himself, clearly making an effort to not look at her. His back is to her as he rifles through the dresser drawer. It’s utterly endearing and it’s what gives Betty the courage to be bold. Biting back a grin, she reaches for the hem of her dress, wriggling to get the sodden material off her skin. It makes a squelching sound when it hits the floor.</p><p>“I have a different idea about how you can get me dry.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Married At First Sight</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  
</p><p>Betty Cooper didn’t mean to almost be late for her own wedding. She couldn’t even blame it on the ancient 1948 Chevy she’d painstakingly restored; that was a matter of personal pride. No, she had been wrestling with the enormous life-altering choice looming before her. But then she reminded herself that her own family had fallen apart and the oncoming climate crisis meant the future was fucked, so why not?</p><p>Jughead Jones was probably the last person his friends and/or family would expect to sign up for an arranged marriage. Somewhere in his very cynical and detailed analysis of why this wouldn’t work for him, he’d somehow talked himself into doing it. And when the matchmakers had contacted him to tell him they’d found him a match…maybe it was curiosity, maybe it was hope.</p><p>Love at first sight? No. Attraction at first sight? <em>Fuck yes</em>. It’s very awkward kissing your hot new spouse when you just met them five minutes ago. However, given that their friends are making eyes at one other across the aisle, support for their marriage doesn’t seem like it’ll be a problem. </p><p>They honeymoon at a lodge in the Adirondacks, which is almost immediately roiled by the scandal of a murder. When Jughead sneaks into the caretaker’s unlocked* office to do some investigating, only to see his own wife snooping through a no-longer-locked file cabinet, he decides that he’s going to enjoy being married to Betty Cooper very much.</p><p> </p><p>*Note to self: upon discovering that said wife can pick locks, it is rather redundant to blurt out “Marry me”.</p>
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